Resources for You

Introduction

The year 2011 was an extremely eventful year.

The Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) joined national and international veterinary groups in celebrating World Veterinary Year, commemorating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the world’s first veterinary school in Lyon, France. It was the year of the veterinarian in the United States, as designated by Congress.

Fiscal Year 2011 (FY 2011) was also the year of the strategic plan. CVM developed strategic plans within the context of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Strategic Plan, which was updated during the fiscal year, and the FDA’s Foods and Veterinary Medicine Program Strategic Plan, issued near the end of the fiscal year. CVM also developed strategic plans for human capital, the Center’s international activities and the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System.

The Foods and Veterinary Medicine Program Strategic Plan reflects the impact of the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011, which directs FDA to build a modern, prevention-oriented food safety system suitable for today’s globalized food supply. The Food Safety Modernization Act signals a new direction in CVM’s regulation of animal feed and pet food – a new direction that the Center previously anticipated in two programs that were underway in FY 2011. One program is the Pet Event Tracking Network (PETNet), which provides for rapid sharing of information about pet food-related contamination incidents. The other is the Veterinary Laboratory Response Network (Vet-LRN), designed to coordinate the investigation not only of animal food-related illnesses, but also animal drug-related contamination incidents.

FY 2011 was also the first full year of operation under our new vision statement: “Excellence. Innovation. Leadership.” Within and outside CVM, we experienced wide acceptance of the vision as a clear and simple statement that easily adapts to the use of illustrations to give substance to each word. Evidence of the impact of the new statement will be seen throughout this report as we implemented our vision so that we might better accomplish the Center’s mission: protecting human and animal health. We made major strides forward because of the efforts of our staff – trained, motivated, innovative, and committed to excellence – to do what was necessary to accomplish our mission.

This report provides evidence of leadership at all levels resulting in innovation and excellence in meeting challenges through accomplishments in many areas. The major part of these achievements appears in the section of this report titled “Challenges and Accomplishments.” First, though, we offer a perspective from Center leadership, and a review of some of the year’s highlights including innovative initiatives.